Apparatuses and methods of producing plastics material containers have long been known from the prior art. It is usual for plastics material pre-forms first to be heated by means of a furnace and for these plastics material pre-forms heated in this way then to be shaped in a blow moulding machine, in particular a stretch blow moulding machine, into the containers by being acted upon with blowing air. This shaping process is a relatively complicated process in this case and it is usually divided into a multiplicity of part steps. In this way, the container is expanded with a preliminary blow moulding pressure, then a finishing blow moulding pressure is usually applied and finally the container expanded in this way is held at this pressure for a pre-set time, so that the deformed state can be stabilized.
Apparatus and methods are also known from the prior art in which the containers are cooled during the shaping process or in part after it, in particular in a base region, in order to stabilize the base region in this way. In addition, other procedures are also known for achieving this base stability. In this way, it is known for base after-cooling by air or water variants to be arranged at the exit of a blow moulding machine of this type. After-cooling in this way, however, results in various drawbacks. In the case of cooling with an air blower the ideal conditions can be achieved only in the rarest cases. In this way, in the case of a vortex nozzle for example, there is unnecessary air consumption. Even in the case of a blow moulding variant, ideal installation conditions occur only rarely. An after-cooling of the base by means of water has the drawback that the containers are subsequently moistened or wetted with water, and this in turn constitutes a problem for a subsequent labelling.
Therefore, it may be desirable to make available an apparatus and a method which will make the production of containers more energy-efficient. In particular, an apparatus and a method should be made possible in this case which allow the cooling of specified regions of the container, in particular a base, during the blow moulding.